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Would You Spend $400 on a Playstation 4?

Another rumor about the Playstation 4 is making the rounds on the internet today, except this one has nothing to do with hardware

Money (Photo credit: 401(K) 2013)

or functionality. Japanese newspaper Asahi News suspects that this new console will retail for 40,000 yen, or $427, likely rounded down to $400 USD.

We have to remember that Sony has not yet confirmed the existence of the PS4, and any rumors should be taken with heaping handfuls of salt. Kotaku suspects this one could be entirely made up. But this reminds us how vital price is going to be in the early days of this new console. We have a few different audiences here: core fans who will buy the console no matter what, hardcore gamers who will weigh their options on which new platforms to buy, and people who play some games and could be persuaded to pick up a console if its exciting enough. For the latter two, price can be a make or break factor.

The $600 tag is often cited as one of the biggest reasons for the PS3’s slow start, and the $250/$300 with memory tag on the Vita isn’t doing the flailing little handheld any favors. It’s typically assumed that hardware manufacturers lose money on every console sold, so the price becomes questions of how much money the manufacturer is prepared to lose, how much money it thinks customers will reasonably pay for it, and how many games those particular customers are likely to buy. It’s a supply and demand chart, just a weird one.

$400 is neither very expensive nor very cheap. It’s the same price as an iPad 2 and cheaper than a current-gen model. I think that people are more primed to spend money on electronics than they were in 2006. This could give people on the fence a more enticing entry point. Combine that with the fact that this is likely being built with off-the-shelf parts rather than obsessive boutique hardware, and it might even be worth it from the company’s perspective.

I’m inclined to think that Sony could get some good traction with this price point, especially since it puts it in competition with the Wii U. It’s all academic for a two more weeks, though. How much would you spend on a Playstation 4?

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I would! 400 dollars would pretty cheap for a console here in Sweden. I bought my 360, one year old, for around 490 dollars. And the PS3 launched in Sweden with a price tag of 780 dollars or something.

Consoles and games in Sweden are so much more priced, it’s usually around 200-300 dollars extra for consoles. The equivalent of the 60 dollar new release in Sweden 599 SEK, or 93 USD.

I’m always so jealous of the relative cheap games and consoles in the states. It seems that the companies really push the prices as hard as they can and they get horrible inflated in other parts of the world, like how it launched for around 1130 USD in Brazil. Sure, the price might be adjusted to match the market size so they sell a little for alot and earn it back that way but it just seems sorta backwards anyhow.

Anyway, I guess I sorta drifted away from the original subject of the article but realistically, my upper limit for a PS4, if it has all the features I want, promising games and no strange features like anti-used games systems and pay-for-online like Xbox Live Gold, then I would probably pay 2999 SEK, which would be around 467 USD. Though, I bet the price will be rounded up to around 3999 or 4999 SEK.

Anyway, just by writing this and looking at the prices, I sorta understand why alot of people in my country import consoles on/near launch. It can be so much cheaper if you find a good way to ship it.

Back in 06 when I bought the original ps3, due to the heaviness of norwegian taxation I had to lay down a 1000$, I guess I don’t stand a chance this time either. So smuggling ps4s? Anyone? Really, the PS store HAS to carry over though, which would mean that you already have plenty of games to your acc before you even start buying new ones. And that’s REAL exciting, finally carrying your full library of games on one console, not having to leave any “generation” behind. The ps store, and the ps+ is already done so well I might even start the next gen by buying PS3 games if there aren’t any exciting exclusives early on. That PSN is going to carry over is a no brainer, so the ps4 unlike the 3 will be able to start off with a library!

*potentially; if it’s not backwards compitable, that would mean we would have to buy digital copies, and avoid the second hand market.. The prices would propably be cut though.

Speaking of exclusives, Last Guardian looks like it will never reach the ps3. I’m playing with the theory that maybe Sony swiped it from the deck, to make it an ace for the ps4s launch. Would be a pretty god damn clever move from Sony if so.. Would also be great for the game not to be held back by the current playstation, as I’m sure it will be a timeless classic. Most importantly I think the PS4 needs to be as much of a powerhouse as 3 was, price aside that’s Sonys place in the foodchain, so long as it’s more powerful than the wii and nextbox I’ll to be happy to pay more than 400$, I pretty much hope it’s more than 400..

$400? It seems they indeed learned from one of their biggest mistake, branding $600 price tag on a game console that hardly have any game yet is over the top ridiculous. With this price, if combined with great launch title exclusive would possibly make it have success in first year of sale.

But still, things bothered me. Since this is “next-gen” console we talking about, Sony must’ve been fill it brim of brand new technologies and yet the price is quite mediate for that. This probably Sony’s last bet.

It’s just not happening. Wasn’t Sony selling PS3s at a loss even at $600? Sony’s idea of Next Gen is the most bleeding edge processing capability at any cost so I think the days of reasonably priced Sony consoles died with with PSX and was buried with PS2. They may be aiming for $400 but by the time the thing comes out you’ll be lucky if its less than $550 imo, and PS3 early adopters will still call it a deal.